Districts seek alternate student head counts due to storm uncertainty

TALLAHASSEE — Twelve Florida school districts and 19 charter schools are asking state education officials for an “alternate” time period for student population surveys that determine how state funding is doled out to schools.

Many of those requests have come as a result of expectations that there may be a significant influx of students from Puerto Rico following the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. The list of districts and schools requesting an alternate survey period includes some of the state’s largest, like Miami-Dade, Broward and Orange.

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This week, Oct. 9-13, is the normal student survey period that determines how much money each school gets based on student population. The alternate surveys, if approved, would have to happen no later than the week of Dec. 11-15.

Linda Champion, the deputy education commissioner in charge of finance and operations, told the House Education Committee on Wednesday that the Florida Department of Education is hearing only anecdotal reports so far about the wave of students coming from Puerto Rico, numbering in the hundreds in Miami-Dade and Orange counties.

"What we will do is look at the student counts in the official time frame as well as that alternate week that they count students,” Champion said of the alternative survey periods. "If they reach the threshold that’s required, then we’ll use their alternate counts for those students.”

For the alternate survey to count for additional funding, it must result in a student increase of 5 percent or more for a district, or 25 percent or more for a school.

Champion said that in conversations with district finance officers, “we have not gotten the sense that they’re anticipating being overwhelmed with numbers of students at this point."

The department’s current budget request is based on an estimate of about 27,000 new students enrolling next year — but that estimate was made over the summer, before the flurry of hurricanes affecting the state directly and indirectly. And figuring out how many students will be coming from Puerto Rico will be a challenge for state lawmakers as they craft a budget for next year.

"One of the bigger concerns I think we have,” House pre-K-12 education budget chairman Manny Diaz told POLITICO, "is making sure we get that [student population] projection correct for the budget we’re building ... to make sure we have the funds in there for those new students.”

An underestimate would mean the money allocated will simply have to be spread among more students.

State Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, suggested that the state should set aside money in anticipation of the increase.

"This is not just a normal increase in population," he told POLITICO. "We know they're coming. And we welcome them here. But there's a cost to it. And so the local school district shouldn't have to absorb all those costs for the new students coming in."